Emergency Powers - Lex-Atlas: Covid-19

Spain

A brief comment on the Spanish Constitutional Court Judgment concerning the first Covid-19 state of alarm

External contributors: Miguel Ángel Presno Linera and Patricia García Majado (University of Oviedo) On 14 July 2021, the Spanish Constitutional Court (SCC) issued its long-awaited ruling on the constitutionality of

Taiwan

Covid-19 and Data Privacy Challenges in Taiwan

By Chuan-Feng Wu (external contributor) At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwan has adopted numerous novel digital technologies for contact tracing, social distancing, home quarantine, and pandemic investigation. Effective

Belgium

The Brussels Court of Appeal provisionally confirms the legality of the public health measures – All eyes on the Belgian Supreme Courts… and the Parliament

The Brussels Court of Appeal quashed the decision of the French-speaking Court of First Instance of Brussels which had given the Belgian State 30 days to provide a new legal

Italy

An update as the Italian Government gradually lifts the Covid-19 containment measures

Although a deliberation of the Council of Ministers recently extended the statutory state of emergency until 31 July 2021, over the past two months, the Italian Government has been gradually

Germany

The Summary Proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court against the ‘Federal Emergency Brake’

On 21 April 2021, the Bundestag amended the Infection Protection Act through the Fourth Population Protection Act, introducing the so-called ‘Federal Emergency Brake’ (Bundesnotbremse) which imposes, legally at the federal

Spain

Administrative penalties for breaches of the state of alarm in Spain: an overview of unsolved problems

As explained in Part II of the Oxford Compendium Country Report for Spain, over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic the Spanish Government declared two nationwide states of alarm (14

China

China's legal response to Covid-19

Covid-19 first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan around November-December 2019, with the first mass outbreak starting there in January 2020. According to media reports, the earliest cases (though

Spain

Prohibition of evictions and extraordinary measures on rentals for vulnerable groups extended until 9 August 2021

On 4 May 2021, the Spanish Council of Ministers decided to prolong a set of social measures that were adopted to protect the access of vulnerable citizens to affordable and

Belgium

A countdown to end the lockdown? The Brussels Court of First Instance gives the Belgian government 30 days to adapt the legal bases of the health measures

The legal bases of the measures enacted in Belgium since the beginning of the health crisis have been the subject of intense debate for months. Paraphrasing Victor Hugo in Les

Belgium

Belgium tightens restrictions in face of a ‘third wave’ of the pandemic

Strict measures to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic have been in place in Belgium since early November 2020, when the second wave of the pandemic hit Belgium hard.

Belgium

Belgian Federal Parliament ‘comes out of quarantine’: current debates around the adoption of a new ‘Pandemic Act’

On 26 February 2021, the Belgian Minister for Home Affairs submitted to the Belgian House of Representatives (Federal Parliament) a ‘Pandemic Bill’ designed to offer a specific statutory framework for